THURSDAY
DEC. 18, 2014 Opinion ��������������Page 4 Community News ���Page 5
New Sign!
Forks History Quillayute Grade School Fire
Page 8
Page 10
Sports ���������������Page 7 Classifieds ���������� Page 13 SERVING THE WEST END SINCE 1931
Volume 83 No. 16
• WWW.FORKSFORUM.COM •
Petroglyph links Quileute to their past
Erik Wasankari and his son Reid are interviewed by KOMO News reporter Jeff Burnside. It was Erik who found the rock while fishing the Calawah River about a year ago. Photo by Lonnie Archibald
to higher ground on the river bank because of heavy rain, was loaded up with the help of a small piece of equipment. It then traveled by vehicle through Rayonier land and then on to LaPush, where the Quileute will have another ceremony at the A-Ka-Lat. It had been planned initially to take the rock by boat, but the with the rivers running so high that plan was dropped. Carvings in the rock show K’wati, the legendary figure who transformed the tribe from wolves to humans, with a red comb atop his head and three defined teeth and a tongue extending to the head of the Red Lizard. According to the
legend passed down through generations of tribal members, the Red Lizard built his lair, called Xa’laxti, on the path between the two rivers, preventing people from using it. K’wati killed the lizard along with many other monsters at the Time of Beginnings. When Wasankari found the rock last December he was bank fishing with his son and had stopped to have some lunch when he noticed a marking on the rock that was then covered with moss. As he and his son began removing the moss they could see they had found something special. Wasankari took pictures of the rock at that time and shared it
with a few people who agreed it was special. Wasankari contacted the University of Washington and the Quileute Tribe to report his find. Stilson, who just retired a week ago, called the discovery the most significant of his career. It is Stilson’s thought that the carvings extend to the underside of the boulder as well.
Clallam County PUD rate increases Clallam County PUD 1 commissioners are considering rate increases for electric, water, and wastewater customers as part of the 2015 budget. The 2015 PUD budget, to be approved at the Dec. 15 commission meeting in Port Angeles, is predicated on the following rate increases: electric retail rate increase of 3.5 percent effective on all bills rendered on or after April 1, 2015; a 6 percent retail water rate increase effective on all bills rendered on or after Jan. 1, 2015; and, a 6 percent sewer rate increase effective on all bills rendered on
FORKS
LAPUSH
BEAVER
or after Jan. 1, 2015. For electric utility customers, a 3.5 percent increase in retail electric utility rates amounts to an increase of approximately $3.35 per month for the average PUD residential customer, using 1200 kWh per month. For water utility customers, a 6.0 percent rate increase will result in approximately $2.50 more per month on the average bill. PUD, page 3
CLALLAM BAY
SEKIU
NEAH BAY
PRSRT STD US Postage Paid Permit No. 6 Forks, WA
was lost in an 1889 fire that destroyed its village at LaPush. The rock was discovered last December on state-owned shore-lands by a local fisherman, Erik Wasankari, and authenticated by Washington State Department archeologist Lee Stilson, who was on hand at the event. With the river rushing by and rain falling, the recovery ceremony included a Quileute prayer, led by Tom Jackson, songs and remarks from tribal leaders as well as remarks from Wasankari, and Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark. Following the ceremony, the petroglyph, which was moved
ECRWSS - BOXHOLDER
On Wednesday Dec. 10, at 11 a.m. at a location near the Bogachiel Fish Hatchery, the Quileute Tribe recovered a newly discovered petroglyph in a ceremony near where it was found along the Calawah River. The limestone rock, handcarved prior to contact with Europeans, depicts a legendary battle between the tribe’s creator and a monstrous red lizard that guarded passage on the shortest path between the Sol Duc and Calawah rivers. Elders and tribal leaders say the rock is the only known petroglyph depicting a Quileute legend on the tribe’s traditional territory. Nearly all of the tribe’s art from pre-contact days
Quileute Tribal chairman Charles Woodruff speaks to about 40 people gathered last Wednesday morning. Photo by Lonnie Archibald. See more photos page A-9.